Kimber's Navy Family

There are a lot of things about having twins that are hard to put into words or hard for people without twins to understand. For some things, parenting twins is double the work. For other things, it is half the work. I absolutely love being a momma to identical twins. However, I read some of these articles about parenting twins or talk to some people with multiples and it feels like they are trying to make parenting twins far more unique or unusual than it is. Some of the things involved in parenting twins applies to parenting more than one child. Having twins in itself is special and unique. Why make it bigger than it is? Why say things in a way that puts down other moms, especially since most moms are moms of singletons? It feels like it is making a divide, when there is no need to create more mommy competition than there is already. I was reading this article and it seemed to cover all the bases for most of the "unique" twin things I hear a lot, "9 things on...

    Motherhood is challenging to navigate. There is so much out there on, well, everything.   "You must buy this!"   "If you want your baby to grow up feeling loved, do this..." "Remember to always speak this way." "It's the little things that count." Even on this blog I talk about how I do things and about the products that I have liked with our boys. But that's what they are: things that I liked. That doesn't mean that you will like them or that you should parent how I do. It doesn't even mean that you should do things how I do. I'm talking about things that work for me and my family. Why? Because I like reading about how other people do things. I like talking to other people and finding out about how they solve some of the more difficult challenges of motherhood, how they fix the small and big stuff. I like hearing other people's family schedules. I like knowing that I am not the only one ...

I am 38 weeks pregnant with our fourth child. We live in South Carolina and it is hot and humid . We also have three boys and are expecting our fourth boy. Apparently all of this put together has left people rather flummoxed when trying to make small talk with me. In order to fight off the I'm-beyond-hot-and-exceedingly-pregnant bitterness that accompanies the late third trimester while pregnant in the South, I'm putting together a list of polite things to say to other gals in my situation, should you choose to start making personal remarks to strangers.   10 APPROPRIATE COMMENTS TO MAKE TO A PREGNANT WOMAN   1. "When are you due?" This comment takes the place of these inappropriate comments that I hear all.the.time regarding how far along I look: "Wow! You are about to POP! Holy cow! I saw you walking up and I thought WHOA!" "Goodness, any day now, right?" (Why is this rude? Because I started hearing this a little before 30 weeks. An...

"The 'terrible two's' are a terrible misnomer.  They imply a finite time frame for behavior that doesn't necessarily have one." - What to Expect: The Toddler Years, page 446 I don't know how scientific this is, but I really think it is confusing being a two-year old. I don't think they understand why they can't have their cake and eat it too. Yesterday I had a multiples playdate at my house. There were a lot of two-year olds running around and many of them were overwhelmed, including one of mine. He wanted to get down and play, but was intimidated by the noise and the amount of children suddenly appearing in "his" playroom. As I was chatting with another mom, he grabbed my legs and said, "Up! Up!" I picked him up to which he said, "Down! Down!" He wanted to play with the toys on the ground and be held by Momma. After picking him up and putting him down a few times, I told him he had to choose up or down. The po...

Picture taken by TwinBug Photography at twinbugphotography@yahoo.com It is inevitable to hear comments from strangers when going out with the kids. Some of them are well-meaning, "You've got your hands full!" or "Wow! Are they twins?" Some of them do not make much sense, "Better you than me!" or "You need to find a hobby!" This past week I was going into the grocery store with the toddlers. They are happier riding in the double shopping cart that looks like a race car (nothing like grocery store cookies and steering wheels to keep them happy while I shop!). However, this meant getting them to walk into the store. And, of course, instead of walking, they were holding my hands with one hand and attempting to grab my legs with the other, all while wailing loudly. It was a slow, slow, slow process heading into the store. Eventually one of the toddlers won. I couldn't make it any further with two toddlers holding onto my legs while melti...

Me, I'm waiting so patiently, lying on the floor I'm just trying to do my jigsaw puzzle before it rains anymore -The Rolling Stones Well, the past week has been an adventure. An adventure? Maybe a trial, a test, or a lesson in patience would be a better way to describe it. It sounds like one of my friends has had a similar week (see her blog: " A typical ordinary day "). This week was strange. I don't know why my babies have been resisting naps, which they otherwise enjoy. Our day yesterday: O woke up at 0700, which is much, much too early for a momma who (now) rarely goes to bed before midnight and expects to wake up somewhere around 0830/0900. Begrudgingly, I realized around 0715 that his sporadic fussing was not going to cease and dragged myself to the coffee maker. After feeding O and D breakfast-- D was so excited to see Momma out of bed that early-- I did my devotional. D informed me that God likes "flat Bibles," as he opened his ...

TwinBug Photography at twinbugphotography@yahoo.com There once was a girl with a curl Right in the middle of her forehead When she was good, she was very, very good But when she was bad she was horrid Twin toddlerhood. There are so many things that are better with two toddlers versus the twin newborn days. There is so much involved in the care of newborns, especially premature newborns, especially when there are two newborns, especially when those newborns have a very active older brother, especially living so far away from family... I could go on and on about the challenges we had the first year. I have said it before, but I think the biggest challenge is logistics that first year. How do you breastfeed two? How do you bottle-feed two? How do you pump for two? How do you get two to nap at the same time? How do you entertain a two and half year old while burping two babies? How do you safely get two infant carriers and their older brother to the car? How do you feed...

"Tip #10: You will not get tired of the attention you get with the twins." From Every Other Twin Book is Wrong: 15 Tips on Twin Pregnancy, Infancy, and Toddler Times by Carla Shelley Anderson Wardin Here is the hard truth about all those ridiculous comments people make when you go out with twins: you would get ridiculous comments if you went out with a singleton. There was one particular incident that has always stood out in my mind. When we lived in Hawaii, I decided to stop at the grocery store on our way home from the beach. My son was tired and sandy from his day at the beach; I brought him in the store wearing just a diaper. This elderly woman stopped my shopping cart to comment on my adorable baby... girl. This is exactly what she said to me, "Some babies, you just can't tell. But, her, well, you can tell that she is a baby girl. And she is the most beautiful baby girl I have ever seen." Granted, my son was bald until he was almost two and ...